THE TRACE OF THE CROCODILE

The “animal” in us is the thematic beat on which the 84 texts of “Traces of the Crocodile” are set in 12 cycles. One of the oldest surviving animals in the history of the earth, the crocodile, stands for it in this text, but also birds and fish, such as the ancient coelacanth. It is the rather unconscious feeling of a long genetic metamorphosis that connects us with these animals in many ways, also an indefinite longing: on the one hand, admiring, adoring them as gods, as in many traditions of the ancient peoples, fearing them, exhibiting them in Zoos, dreaming of them or recreating them as plastic toys for our children. How much animal are we still, how much animal do we wish it was in us when we have pictures of crocodiles, birds and fish as tattoos in our skin? How much “animal” do we need, do we want to be in our love life in order to feel happy? The texts revolve around a possible answer and take back the narrative, in that their rhythm is interrupted by underlining and problematizing refrains or characterized by repetitions. As “digital art poetry”, they are part of an overall digital concept that integrates videos influenced by club performances, techno and house music and spoken language so that they can be presented as a cross-media book or as performances.